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Comment by LarryMullins | Hacker News Reader

> The people who are recognisable on social media posts from the protests have all been arrested by now. They waited just long enough to make people forget about it before they picked them up one by one.

Same deal as with that Bundy/Overpass standoff between militia types and the Feds a few years ago. The Feds showed up, saw the number of men with rifles, turned around and went home. Mission accomplished right? The militia guys all pat each other on the back and congratulate themselves on scaring off the feds. Except they then get quietly arrested one by one over the next few months. Those arrests never become big headline stories like the initial standoff, so you still have fools today who think those standoff tactics are viable.

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I'm not into US politics so just a glance at Wikipedia. You compare anti-lock down protests with someone stealing land? Or was is it just comparing the way the police worked in general? I can't follow your argument.

> Or was is it just comparing the way the police worked in general?

This one. When the local odds aren't in their favor, they go home and arrest people later at their leisure.

Assuming that these armed people actually broke the law, that’s the better move then. Otherwise there would be a huge outbreak of violence. But that’s not really comparable to lawful protests.

I am comparing the law enforcement tactics, not the reasons for the protests. The protests themselves being incomparable is irrelevant.

I'd say it's the best, least violent and risky way of dealing with this.

The tool is good. Ensuring it's used for good reasons it's a separate problem.

But charges against Bundy were dropped, weren’t they?

And those arrests didn’t really amount to anything, did they?

So yes, I’d say mission accomplished.

Didn’t he even run for governor in his state?

I haven't followed the Bundy affair closely and it does seem Clive Bundy himself ultimately got off, but I'm mostly talking about all the other guys who were on the overpass that day pointing rifles at federal agents. From what I've read and heard, they were all IDed and arrested afterwards. Wikipedia says that besides Clive, 18 others were indicted for federal felonies allegedly perpetrated that day.

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